I eat meat.

There’s a lot of debate about whether or not eating meat is good for you.

On the one hand people argue that meat gives you some nutrients not easily obtained by other non-meat sources. On the other, well just think about it, it’s just plain good for you.

With the emphasis on buying organic, many people stray away from the same things about meat that make others not eat it. Some people stay away from meat because they are against the way the animals are treated and killed.

This morning I began writing this blog in my web browser and when a phone call came in, ended up not paying attention and closed the tab, but no worries, although, my last one may have been great, I'm going to retrace over my topics and recreate it, hopefully making it the same or better.

So I've been going to my dietitian for about a month now. Six pounds have been lost and can I just say...YAY!

While things have been going well, I can't help but reflect on things I know I could have put more effort into and things I will be working on from this point forward.

It’s amazing what a little encouragement and some guidance in the right direction can do.

I went to the appointment I scheduled with one of Kingley Health’s dietitians and after some initial paperwork, we got down to business.

We talked about my goals, how I feel about myself, my life, my job, my eating habits (which I was brutally honest about) and just about everything to catch her up to speed on me. I guess you could say guts were spilled.

To quote lyrics from Green Day’s popular and infectious anthem, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), “Another turning point and a fork stuck in the road,” just about describes my situation right now.

Because this blog is personal, I am able to share this with readers:

I used to be on the right track to being healthy. My decisions, habits and behaviors landed me a one way ticket to health and normalcy.

While I had hoped to keep going down that road something happened and ever since, I have not found that same success.

Ipods. Wiis. TVs. Music.

What do these items all have in common?

They have transformed the way people work out and have distracted me, in particular, from staring at the time and counting down the moments until I finish exercising.

For me, the more distracted I am, the better because before I even step foot in a gym, my mind is already thinking about how great I will feel when I’m done with an extra focus on the being finished part. This does not apply to classes at the gym, strictly to working out on machines.

Flashback two years and 500+ lbs ago.

Two good friends sitting at the kitchen table after a meal of one too many second helpings. They push away from the table and in unison agree that this (overeating) has got to stop and something other than the notches on their belts has got to give. That something is their weight. From this, the Biggest Loser Challenge of Hamilton was invented.

I set out on a mission.

Halloween is breathing right down our necks and with it comes the temptation to eat a pillowcase full of candy.

While some of you are the proud parents of trick or treating professionals and others are the professionals themselves, after a long night of racing from house to house to obtain an obscene amount of goodies from the neighborhood, you'll find that when you finish your stomach will only be able to handle so much.

I know, I know. Now before you and your neighbors gather your pitchforks and torches and chase me out of town, hear me out.

It's fall in New Jersey. In 2009 that has come to mean that the temperature can't make up its mind about whether it wants to be 70 or 30 degrees and the weather seems to be taking a similar approach to life.

From about March of 2008 until September of that year, I made a good decision. I was sick of guessing what and how to eat and was so fed up and antsy for a solution that I retreated to my computer for some research of my own. I probably didn’t resurface and see the light of day for quite some time, but came out with the most amazing and obvious solution: go to the experts.

You’re at the doctor’s office and it's checkup time.

Once your name is called, you enter a room and the routine begins. All of a sudden the doctor or nurse will hit you with five of the most dreaded words imaginable. Hearing them is almost as painful as listening to someone take a metal rake across a chalkboard in a never ending symphony for ten minutes.

“Please step on the scale.”

Terrifying, isn’t it?